New to the site but not to gaming or Mutants and Masterminds, I find myself interested in running a game which will be involved and hopefully a decent pace (though I understand we all get busy)

Two different ideas, with sub ideas beneath. The first involves the (assumed canon?) setting of Freedom City:

I like Freedom City (though I'd need to decide when to set it and what to use) and if I ran such a game I'd prefer a group of players who interweave well into the established setting (a mostly optimistic world which is a love letter to multiple eras of comics and favours a strong legacy lineage)

Idea 1.1: a team in Freedom City set in the current year (2017), over a decade after the time period of the 2nd ed setting, so changes would need to be made to the world. The team would either be a new independent super team, a new iteration of the Freedom League stationed in Freedom, or one of the other setting suggested teams (street team (might or might not be street level), suicide squad type team, mystical team, Claremont)

Idea 1.2: idea above but set in 2005-2007, the canonical years of the setting

Idea 1.3: A team playing in one of the other eras of Freedom, the Golden, Silver or Iron ages, or even further back

Idea 1.4: a more dedicated Claremont Academy game with school angst and the like

Idea 2 would be a homebrew setting in which case we the group would be much more flexible to create a world that suits us. Be it a lower level team, or a strong city based team or a big Justice League type team in a satellite, all I'd need there is a clear idea of what everyone wants to do. Such an idea would require more involvement on the players parts to really get the most out of the game because we'd be working together to make the game.

It all depends on how much love there is for Freedom vs. how much everyone wants to carve their own story

I love the FCU. I think tying characters into the setting is key, if you're going to use it at all. IME, players bring in their favorite build and barely pay any attention whatsoever to the setting.

Having them either play existing FC characters, e.g. The Scarab or Beacon, would link them directly to the history and to established villains, etc.

OTOH, a lot of players balk at this. They think their own builds and characters are best, but as I said, they pay very little attention to the setting because--let's be frank--they're routinely applying to game with the same character that they "never get to play."

A middle ground would be to have the character invent legacies to existing characters. That way they get to do their own build, but have to tie in key elements, and if you're playing Beacon II, then maybe SHADOW is lurking around the corner.

WulfFyre member, 3 postsWed 1 Mar 2017at 19:29

msg #3

M&M 2e game (Freedom City/homebrew?)

Certainly a good compromise. I just don't want orphan characters in a setting so rich, so tying them in somehow is key